Help with submersible pump.

bob_nevin(6)April 14, 2014

Can I get a recommendation for a submersible pump? I had the 1/5 horse power ShinMaywa pump. It lasted a few days less than 3 years. Any suggestions? Price is important. Do I go with the same pump or try another? I paid 249.00 for my old pump. Thank you for your help.

If it is an outlet, it can be hard wired or put on a dedicated outlet according to NEC codes. If it is on a GFCI breaker then other outlets may be affected if you changed breakers which would be a code violation.

Have you checked the wire? A lot of people will pick up a sump pump by the wire and damage it.

I'm not familiar with that particular pump but most sump pumps have a way to access the internal connections of the wire. It may have water in there. If so you can dry it out and reseal it.

Do you have an OHM meter? If so check the "hot" side of the cord to the ground side.

It is a line dedicated to the pond pump. The outlet is a gfci which has been running my pond pumps for many years now . The outlet is not the problem there has to be some kind of short in the pump. I would guess it could be a problem with the water seal. The pump has a handle on top so there is no need to lift it by the cord.
Any other pump recommendations?

I have really liked my 2400 gal/hr mag drive Laguna Pump. I also got it at Webb's Water Gardens. They were recomended by Webb's for energy savings. The pump has run without problems for 6.5 years so far. It is easy to take apart for cleaning (if you put the inner housing screws aside rather than shaking the housing into the stirred up muddy pond).

I have never heard of anyone being able to re-cable a power cord, but who knows?

"I have never heard of anyone being able to re-cable a power cord, but who knows?"

I have done it hundreds of times, but on the higher hp sump pumps used at work, so I'm not familiar with the one the OP has. I'm an electrician for a waste water company.

Can you post some pictures? I may be able to walk you through it if you want to attempt to repair it and save some money.

"The pump has a handle on top so there is no need to lift it by the cord."

Ours have a handle also, but when they are pulling them up with a cord attached to the handle and they sometimes grab the cord to help is why I mentioned that.

Pump failure is usually caused by one of four things. Cord damage, water leakage, pumping heavier materials than it is designed for (such as debris or sand?) , and/or running dry (they need to stay submerged while running or they will overheat).

I have the (50CR2.15S-1) ShinMaywa 1/5HP Norus Pump 3300gph my receipt says although when I look it up it says 27,000 gph. No matter. Here is a link that shows the pump http://www.noruspumps.com/ShinMaywa-Norus-Pumps/ShinMaywa-Norus-50CR215S-Pump-sc-6878.html

I had already checked the cord and it is fine. The pump has not been moved for over a year. It was not taken out of the pond or lifted. It worked up until now.

I am guessing it has a leak. I will test the hot and ground for continuity tomorrow.

According to the picture you would remove the 4 screws around the top part (the black part with the handle). Remove it very carefully because the wires are probably very short and you may unplug (not so bad but you may not know where they plug back in!) or damage them. If they are too short you can probably loosen the cord attachment and get some slack. It's hard to tell from the picture.

Most likely it has a capacitor under that cover and it could be bad also. It can be causing a surge, or leaking to ground when it is trying to start, tripping the GFCI. See the link below for how to test it.

If you have a local WW Grainger they can match it up. You can also order from them online or by phone. It shouldn't be but $5 or so. A local electrical supplier may have them also, but more expensive probably.

If it has water inside the chamber get some o-ring grease and apply it to the seals unless it has a gasket. You can use a silicon sealer on the gasket in a pinch, I prefer not to use it because it is slightly corrosive.

I bought the laguna 2900 gph pond pump and will not use any other pumpf rom now on and bought it on ebay from webbs.4 year warranty 169 dollars and uses 104 watts of power and can fill a 60 gallon filter tank and still have extra for the 4 ft wide water fall .It hit it's sweet spot at 104 watts of power consumption .I then bought the 45 laguna air pump for 119 dollars on ebay from wayfair.com and my pond is 4 ft deep and it has 12 metal outlets and came with 2 air stones my pond is 3900 gallons .The air pump came with a 2 extended warranty

If you think so I am all for trying. It did not seem like there was much oil, it could have been leftover. I have a silicone lubricant that is used for greasing up o-rings on faucets its like lithium grease or should I use something else? Maybe a tube of gasket sealer like they use on cars?

Personally, I prefer to use the grease. The lube you have is the correct one.

The gasket sealer will work also, If you feel more comfortable with it.

"I hope it is not leading around the shaft of the motor."

I'm guessing that you had a typo and meant leaking?

If you mean the oil leaking from the motor shaft, I have never saw one with oil in it.

If you mean the water it is possible. Can you get to the impeller? Check it for play, the bearing or bushing may be worn and that would cause the seal to fail. Also check to see if it spins freely by hand and doesn't make any noises.

Those are pretty inexpensive to replace also if you think you can do it. I don't know how mechanically inclined you are though.

I have completely rebuilt a lot of sump pumps, but they would have been very expensive to just replace. $1500 for one small ones, $5000 + for our bigger pumps.

wertach, thank you for the help. I will check the impeller for play. I will place the pump in a bucket of water that rises higher than the impeller and see if any water enters the housing. Sorry about the typo. I am handy. I put in my own wiring, electric service, boilers, etc...all have been inspected and I have done so for many years on many of my buildings.I will let you know how it turns out with the pump.

I though I had given the pump enough time for the water in the motor to dry so I turned it upside down to see if any water came out and instead about an ounce of oil came out. Is the pump toast or is it fixable?

It appears to have a chamber for oil. Unusual for a sump type pump of that size. You normally don't have that until you get in to the higher HP range. I'm impressed that it would have that feature. It is there to lubricate and to protect the motor from damage if the bottom seal goes bad.

It may have a bad seal between the motor and the oil chamber, and/or possibly the seal on the bottom. Most likely the bottom seal.

If the bottom seal is bad it will push water into the oil chamber due to water pressure from the impeller, forcing the oil into the motor. Which will trip out a GFIC.

The oil will come first since it will rise to the top. Once the oil is all pushed out the water will come in.

"Is the pump toast or is it fixable?"

It's a crap shoot, probably fixable, but probably not worth the time and money.

Another note to mention, in case you buy another one, is the first reply on that site, "
What no one will tell you is that this manufacturer recommends that the lubricating oil be replaced every 6 to 12 months"

I have an Alpine Cyclone pump which is very energy efficient and does a great job. However, I made a pre filter for it with a 5 gallon storage tub and kitchen scrubbies. It catches much more debris than the pump's cage-like pre filter and cuts way down on the number of times I have to lift it out of the pond for cleaning. I cut out intake holes in the end of the tub and a hole in the lid for the outtake hose, place the pump inside and pack it with the scrubbies. My pond is about 5,000 gallons and with this setup I need to lift the pump out maybe once a month.

Wertach, thank you for going through all that trouble for me. I appreciate all your effort. I think I will keep the pump for now in storage until I have time to look at it and see if it is worth keeping to fix, in the mean time I will look for a new pump for the pond. I did not notice a recommendation for a pump from you. Do you have one?
Also, thank you to everyone else for your help

No Bob, I don't have one yet, I am in the process of building a pond right now. I ran in to a snag, the guy that came out and marked the utilities missed my phone line by 5' and I dug it up......

It's repaired, but I don't want to have the repair under water so I am going to have to fill that part back in and start over.

I know a lot about them since I work on them a lot at my job.

We have sump pumps up to and over 100 HP. We have different brands but most of ours are made by Flygt. I can't remember the other brands right off of the top of my head.

Flygt is a big name in waste water pumps.

I am thinking about going with a 12 volt pump with solar power because it will be a long run to get 120v out there and a lot of utility's are in the way. I already have everything I need to do that, a pump, a solar panel, and batteries.